Rotary variable-discharge pump with radially displaceable vanes and reversible direction of drive



3,431,861 ACEABLE March 11, 1969 H. A. MARTIN ROTARY VARIABLE-DISCHARGE PUMP WITH RADIALLY DISPL VANES AND REVERSIBLE DIRECTION OF DRIVE Sheet Filfid Aug. 1966 March 11, 1969 H. A. MARTIN 3,431,861

ROTARY VARIABLE-DISCHARGE PUMP WITH RADIALLY DISPLACEABLE VANES AND REVERSIBLE DIRECTION OF DRIVE Filed Aug. 4, 1966 Sheet 2 of 5 3,431,861 ACEABLE March 11, 1969 H. A. MARTIN ROTARY VARIABLE-DISCHARGE PUMP WITH RADIALLY DISPL VANES AND REVERSIBLE DIRECTION OF DRIVE Sheet Filed Aug. 4, 1966 g. V 1 m United States Patent 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A rotary variable-discharge pump having radially displaceable vanes and reversible direction of drive in which a housing has openings at two opposite points for the inlet and outlet of liquid which communicate with inlet and discharge chambers located on both sides of a rotor and limited by the rotor and cylindrical curved walls parallel to the rotor shaft. The walls are diametrically opposed and integral with a pair of displaceable plates with the concavities of the curved wall facing the lateral surface of the rotor. Each plate has a circular guide groove facing the side of the rotor and a finger on each edge of each vane is positioned in the guide groove.

This invention relates to a rotary variable-discharge pump with reversible direction of drive.

Specifically, the pump provided by the present invention features a rotor whose vanes are radially displaceable and in co-operation with manually shiftable partitions permit to vary continuously, and without changing the direction or the speed of rotation of the rotor, the output of the pump and to reverse the direction of the circulating flow of liquid.

The pump of the invention is ideal for transferring liquids from one container to another; however, being able to vary its discharge from zero, when it neither lifts nor forces up to maximum output, it may be used even to transmit power through hydraulic means. In fact, a preferred use is as a torque converter, in which case a pump having the said characteristics and driven by a motor is made to work in co-operation with a similar device which acts as a hydraulic engine and receives the mechanical energy transformed into hydraulic energy and is capable of reproducing, at some distance, the original rotary movement. This hydraulic transmission is preferably applied in general industrial uses and particularly in the automotive industry.

From the structural point in view the pump of the invention is characterized by a housing having at two opposite points apertures for the inlet and outlet of the liquid, respectively communicating with corresponding inlet and discharge chambers situated at both sides of a central cylindrical rotor and limited by a pair of curved displaceable walls which are respectively adjusted to two diametrically opposite zones of the rotor and are integral with at least one displaceable plate seated against the flat bottom of the housing, provided with a central elongated orifice in registry with a circular orifice passing through the bottom of the housing and journalling the shaft of the rotor which passes through the said elongated orifice, and the said rotor bearing in radial grooves vanes adapted to contact temporarily the said curved walls, the said vanes being radially displaceable and slidingly mounted in the said radial grooves of the rotor, and each of the said vanes being provided with at least one lateral bolt engaged in a circular groove provided in the said plate adjacent to at least one of the plane faces of the rotor and surrounding the elongated central orifice. The said bolts may be ice provided with guiding sectors, also engaged in the said groove.

Furthermore, the displaceable curved walls are provided with manually operable elements permitting the displacement of the same together with the plate having the circular groove. Since the position of the rotor shaft is fixed, the same rotates permanently in a fixed place. Consequently, when the curved walls and the plate with the guide groove move the relative position of the vanes is altered with the results that at a given position of the latter the inlet chamber is transformed into the outlet chamber, and vice versa. This latter property makes the pump of the invention reversible without varying the direction of rotation of the rotor.

In addition, the different relative positions of the vanes permits to regulate the discharge of the circulating liquid. In fact, when the curved walls are equidistant from the rotor shaft and when the center of the circular groove of the plate is in registry with the said shaft, the pump is at dead point and neither lifts nor forces liquid. However, as soon as the control elements are operated, and the plate and the curved walls start to move in one direction or the other, the pump begins to aspirate liquid through one of its apertures and to discharge it through the opposite one.

Also, each vane, on moving within its housing, acts as a plunger whose lifting or forcing action is used to solve the problem posed by the losses of liquid through the bearing which supports the rotor shaft. To this end the rotor has, in registry with the bottom of the groove hous ing each vane, a pair of conveniently arrange ducts provided with inlet and outlet valves that co-operate in aspirating the liquid escaping through the orifice through which the rotor shaft passes.

The preceding succinct description gives a general idea of the construction characteristics of the invention and the advantages to be derived from the same; some practical embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the annexed drawings which show one of the preferred embodiments of the present pump.

It is pointed out that the embodiment illustrated is only an example given by way of explanation and is not to be construed as limiting the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an exploded view in perspective of the disassembled elements that make up the pump of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the pump showing the same in one of the positions the movable part may occupy;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2. and shows diagrammatically the pump with its movable elements displaced in opposite direction to the positions shown in the preceding figure;

FIG. 4 is a view showing the pump in diametrical section; and

FIG. 5 is a complementary detail view enlarging the zone enclosed by a circle in FIG. 4.

In all the figures, like reference numbers indicate like or corresponding parts.

'Referring now to the drawings, the novel pump has a housing 1 which, as shown, is cylindrical but which in practice may have any other suitable shape.

The housing 1 is closed by means of a cover 2 and has two openings 3, 4 prolonged by respective ducts 5, 6 adapted to be connected to piping (not illustrated).

A bottom 7 of the housing as well as the cover 2 have central orifices 8, 9 accommodating corresponding bushings or bearings 1' and Z supporting the end portions of a shaft 10 integral with a rotor 11 and associated with driving members, (not shown).

The rotor 11 is a cylindrical flattened disc with radial grooves 12 in which are slidingly engaged vanes 13 which on two of their edges have fingers lid for engagement with respective circular guide grooves 15 provided in respective plates 16, 17 displaceably seated against the bottom and the cover of the housing 1.

The plates 16, 17 have central elongated orifices 13, 19 in registry with the orifices 8, 9 in the bottom and the cover respectively. The drawings show particularly for plate 17 seated against the bottom of the housing It that the same is integral with a pair of cylindrical and concentric walls or partitions 2h, 20, diametrically opposed to one another, extending between the bottom 7 and the cover and facing with their respective concavities the lateral surface of the rotor 11 at two opposite zones of the latter.

The curved partitions 20, 20 have at their respective ends parallel shoes or skids 21, 22 and 23, 24 permanently in close sliding contact with parallel guides 25, 26 and 27, 28 integral with the inner surface of the side wall of the housing ll.

By means of a device such as the one shown at 29, the assembly formed by the plates 16, 17 and the partitions 20, 20 is controlled manually, taking it from one extreme position shown by the arrow a in the drawings to the opposite extreme position 1) shown in FIG. 3, through the whole discharge range of the pump and, on passing through zero point, the direction of flow of the liquid is inverted. The device 29 may be, e.g., a screw thread 42 on member 29, a nut 43 fixed within the housing 1 and a lock nut 44 disposed outside the latter.

The pump of the invention operates as follows:

By means of the manually controlled member 29 the partitions 2t], 20' and the plates 16, 117 are displaced to the position shown in FIG. 2 if the liquid is to flow from duct to be discharged through duct 6 as shown by the arrows c, a.

In this case the curved wall or partition 20' will be almost in contact with the periphery of rotor llll, and the vanes 13 guided by the grooves and the fingers 14- will remain in their housings when passing by the wall but will come out of their housings when leaving the wall 20. Each vane reaches its maximum outward position from its housing at the deepest zone of the concavity of the opposite curved wall 20. Thus it is easy to see that when the rotor rotates clockwise as shown by the arrow e in FIG. 2, the vanes, on passing chamber 30, will catch a certain amount of liquid and inject the same then in chamber 31 pressurizing the liquid already there and therefore discharging an equivalent quantity through duct 6 which acts then as an outlet. Simultaneously the discharge of the quantity of liquid creates in chamber 30 a depression which is immediately compensated for by liquid entering through duct 5 which is connected to the source of liquid to be transferred.

Without varying the speed of rotation of the rotor llll,

as the same is connected e.g. to an electric motor or the like (not shown), the discharge of the pump may be varied by manual adjustment by means of the device 29. In effect, when partially moved away from the wall 20' of the rotor 11, the vanes 13 may partially come out of their housings under the control of the aforementioned guides and fingers. Thus the vanes will also catch liquid from chamber 311 and inject it in chamber 30 pushing it back, so that the quantity entering into chamber 31 will be simultaneously reduced by the amount carried away by the vanes on their way to chamber 30 and at the same time by the lesser amount carried by the vanes that slide on the wall 20 (on account of its lesser working length). Expressed differently, the quantity of liquid injected into chamber 31 is not discharged in its entirety through duct 6, and therefore the output is less as is also the input through the inlet duct 5.

When the curved walls 20, 20' are equidistant from the rotor ill the pump rotates without lifting or forcing, with the vanes injecting into chamber 31 a quantity of liquid equal to the one they extract from the same. The

same holds true as regards chamber 30, so that the pump is at its zero point.

When the movable members pass to the position shown in FIG. 3 without changing the direction a of rotation of the rotor 11, the direction of flow of the liquid is reversed, the liquid flowing now from duct 6 to duct 5 as shown by the arrows f and g as will be easily understood in the light of the preceding explanations. Here too it is possible to vary the output of the pump by means of the manual control device 29.

As shown in FIG. 5 the body of the rotor has, in the zone surrounding the shaft 10, a plurality of orifices 32 prolonged into ducts 33 with inlet valves 34. The ducts 33 open into chambers 35 formed between the Walls of the radial groove 12 and a concavity 36 which each vane 13 has between a pair of guides 37 projecting from the inner end of the vane. Another duct 38 opens into an outlet orifice 39 in the opposite face of the rotor 11 in addition to the openings of the ducts 33. Each duct 38 has at its mouth a valve 40 to keep the mouth open when the liquid in chamber 35 is pressurized.

The arrangement of FIGS. 4 and 5 operates as follows:

The liquid flowing within the housing it during the pumping operation accumulates a certain pressure which eventually causes small leakages in zone 41 surrounding the shaft 10. However, the liquid leaked through is absorbed by the depression generated by the vanes in the corresponding chambers 35 upon leaving their housings as shown in FIG. 5. This suction opens the inlet valve 34 and thus the liquid leaked through enters into chamber 35 being there momentarily detained because the other valve 40 is closed.

As the rotor rotates permanently, the vanes 13, in the present instance, return to their housings and consequently the volume of chamber 35 diminishes progressively .until reaching zero volume. This is accompanied by the discharge of the liquid contained in the chamber 35 with the discharge being effected through the displacement and opening of valve 40 allowing the liquid to enter again the zone where the liquid flows towards the discharge opening 6 in the case of FIG. 2 and the outlet 5 in the case of FIG. 3.

The invention as described above will be readily understood by those conversant with the subject, without any further explanations.

Obviously, alterations may be made in the construction of practical embodiments of the invention, but only as regards details and always within the limits expressly specified by the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. A rotary variable discharge pump with reversible direction of drive, including a housing, a shaft extending into the housing, a rotor on the shaft within the housing, said rotor having a plurality of radial grooves, a plurality of vanes slidably arranged in the radial grooves, a pair of displaceable plates within the housing between the rotor and the walls of the casing, a pair of diametrically opposed cylindrical curved walls integral with the pair of displaceable plates and parallel to the shaft, with the concavities of the curved walls facing the lateral surface of the rotor, said housing having at two opposite points, openings for the inlet and outlet of liquid, inlet and discharge chambers located at both sides of the rotor and limited by the rotor and the curved walls communicating with the inlet and outlet openings respectively, each of said displaceable plates have a circular guide groove facing the side of the rotor, a finger on each edge of each vane positioned in the circular guide groove, 21 pair of diametrically opposed guides secured to the inner surface of the side wall of the housing for guiding said curved walls, and means operable exteriorally of the housing and operably related to at least one of said curved walls for displacing said curved walls and plates.

2. The rotary variabe-discharge pump with reversible direction of drive according to claim 1, in which the rotor is cylindrical and of small height and its radius is less than that of the curved cylindrical walls whose concavities co-operate with the convex surface of the side face of the rotor.

3. The rotary variable-discharge pump with reversible direction of drive according to claim 1, in which the displaceable plates integral with the curved walls each have a central elongated orifice accommodating the rotor shaft.

4. The rotary variable-discharge pump with reversible direction of drive according to claim 1 in which the displaceable plates and the walls integral with the same are associated with a manual control device having a control member situated outside the housing.

5. The rotary variable-discharge pump with reversible direction of drive according to claim 1 in which the rotor opening into the bottom of the cavities formed by the radial grooves a pair of said ducts being provided with inlet valves, and the remaining part being provided with discharge valves.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,245,691 11/1917 Deysher. 2,145,872 2/1939 Glenn. 2,225,803 12/ 1940 Smith. 3,162,137 12/ 1964 Carner.

HENRY F. RADUAZO, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R.

has at its two bases and close to the shaft, pairs of ducts 15 103-137 

